US

Chinese patrol streets after Flushing rape

By WU CHONG AND LI XIAOKUN CHINA DAILY
Updated: 2010-05-27 00:00

New york — Armed with whistles and clad in tailored uniforms emblazoned with the words “See Something, Say Something”, a group of 40 volunteers have formed a community watch team in suburb of Flushing after a young Chinese woman was raped and beaten to death last week.

Yao Yu, 23, moved to New York just two months ago before she was dragged into an alley on May 15, raped and fatally beaten with a pipe in the neighborhood with a large demographic of Asian ethnicities. Relatives said Yao dreamed of being a lawyer and had been working at a nail salon to save up for college when she was attacked.

Carlos Salazar Cruz, 28, was arrested shortly after the incident after a witness reported seeing him drag Yao into the alley. The man is charged with attempted murder, assault, aggravated sex abuse and kidnapping. He could also face further charges, said New York City Police Department spokesperson Cheryl Crispin.

A week after the rape, several Chinese residents in Flushing have teamed up to patrol the neighborhood of Flushing each night on weekdays. The team has expanded to almost 40 members, one-fifth of whom are women, said Zhu Lichuang, president of the New York Chinese Associations Alliance. Zhu started the watch and has become one of its volunteers.

“They (the criminals) choose this place because they think Chinese are usually obedient, like carrying cash and prefer to keep silent to incidents,” he said. “So we need to take some actions to show these people that they are wrong.”

The watch, which patrols from 8pm to 10pm from Monday through Friday, has also begun a hotline number. They have distributed more than 200 whistles to the women of the neighborhood.

“We have ordered another 5,000 whistles from the Chinese mainland, which should be delivered soon,” Zhu said. “Wherever we go, we have had some female residents following us. We also distribute handouts that warn others of dangers and send out alerts to shop owners in dark areas, asking them to install lights in front of their stores to improve visibility.”

Zhu said he hopes the voluntary team will expand to more than 100 people to become a more bigger force on the street. “With more volunteers, we can continue to do this for a longer period of time. Otherwise, Yao Yu would have died in vain,” he added.

Earlier this week, Yu Guihua, Yao’s mother, arrived at the Newark airport from Heilongjiang province to the grim news of her daughter’s death. Yao’s father, who is in poor health back in China, has not still been informed of his daughter’s death.

“My child, you're so well-behaved, why did you have such a fate,” Yu cried out. “My daughter was very pretty, why did he (the murderer) beat her like that?”

New York State Assembly woman Grace Meng said that she learned through witnesses and surveillance video that several pedestrians witnessed the attack but simply walked away.

Having lived in Flushing for 23 years, Zhu said the rape case is the “most astonishing” crime he’s heard about in this neighborhood. “It’s not a prepared crime, which however adds to its seriousness,” he said. “It exposes the problems we have had here for a long time: We Chinese are not unified enough, nor are we cared about enough.”

Residents are proposing a large candlelit ceremony later this month to mourn Yao’s death.